What are taxes on a 401(k)?
When contributing or taking a distribution from a 401(k), you might ask yourself “what are the taxes on my 401(k)s?”. Find out when a tax is charged on 401(k)s.
A 401(k) is a tax-deferred account, and employees are not required to pay income taxes on their contributions. You will still be required to pay FICA taxes i.e. Social Security and Medicare Taxes. If you make a withdrawal, you will be required to pay income taxes on the withdrawal amount, and a penalty tax if you are below 59 ½.
For most retirement savers, 401(k) provides a way to reduce income taxes on the paycheck. However, you don't avoid paying taxes forever. Instead, your tax bill comes when you make a withdrawal, and the 401 (k) tax you pay depends on your age and income level.
Do You Pay Tax on 401(k) Contributions?
One of the advantages of using a 401(k) to accumulate retirement savings is the tax break you get on your contributions. For example, if your annual income is $60,000, and you contributed $7,000 into a 401(k) account, your taxable income is $53,000. This is the amount that will be subjected to income taxes at your tax bracket rate.
Usually, there is a government limit on how much you can contribute towards your 401(k) due to the tax breaks. In 2020 and 2021, there is a limit of $19,500 for people below 50, or $26,000 for those 50 or older. This limit is per person, and it applies to all your 401(k) account contributions.
When reporting your annual income, you should not deduct the 401(k) contributions again. Your employer will send you a W-2 Form that indicates your 401(k) contributions for the previous year. However, the IRS will still deduct FICA taxes (Medicare and Social Security taxes) on your gross income (inclusive of your 401(k) contributions).
Tax Treatment of Roth 401(k) Contributions
A Roth 401(k) account is a special 401(k) plan, and it has different tax treatment rules compared to the traditional 401(k) plan. A Roth 401(k) plan is funded with after-tax dollars, and the IRS deducts taxes on the contributions you make to the plan. Withdrawal of contributions in retirement is made tax-free, as long as the IRS considers these distributions qualified.
Tax Charged on 401(k) Distributions
A withdrawal from a 401(k) is known as a distribution in “IRS lingo”. When you take a 401(k) distribution, the distribution will only be subject to income taxes. For example, if you withdraw $4000, you will only pay income tax on that $4000 in retirement. FICA taxes only apply during your active working years. However, how much you pay as income tax depends on how and when you take a distribution.
When you are 59 ½, you can start taking distributions without paying a penalty tax. For a Roth 401(k) account, the withdrawals you make are not taxed, since you already paid income taxes when putting money into the account. You can start taking penalty-free and tax-free distributions from a Roth 401(k) account once you are at least 59 ½.
Once you hit 72 and already retired, you will be required to start taking the required minimum distributions. If you delay in taking the minimum distribution after age 72, IRS will impose a 50% penalty of the amount not distributed.
Tax Charged on Early Withdrawal
Your 401(k) retirement savings are meant to help you pay for expenses in your golden years. Taking out a distribution before you are 59 ½ is a bad idea, and it will trigger a 10% penalty on the withdrawal amount. This means you will pay a penalty tax in addition to income taxes.
The tax consequences of an early withdrawal before age 59 ½ include:
10% Penalty; The IRS will assess a 10% penalty on the distribution. If you withdraw $10,000, the IRS will take a 10% cut from your withdrawal amount i.e. $1000 20% withholding tax: The IRS requires employers to withhold 20% of the 401(k) early withdrawal for payment of income taxes. If you withdraw $10,000 before you are 59 ½, your employer will withhold $2000, and you will receive $8000. Exemptions for the 10% Early Withdrawal Penalty
The IRS may provide an exemption to the 10% penalty for early 401(k) withdrawal in certain circumstances. Some of these circumstances include:
Medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of the Adjusted Gross Income Buying a first home You become completely disabled You are 55, and you retire, quit, or get fired from your job Qualify for a hardship distribution
These events only waive the 10% penalty, but not the income taxes. You must report the withdrawal amount in the tax return for the year.
Rolling Over a 401(k) Account
If you leave your employer, you may decide to transfer the retirement savings from the former employer’s 401(k) account into another retirement account. Here are the two options you have:
Rollover 401(k) to a new 401(k)
If you leave your job for a new job with another employer, you can transfer your 401(k) to the new employer's 401(k). Ask your employer or 401(k) plan administrator to transfer the funds directly to your new 401(k) plan. You can also ask the employer to write you a check, which you will deposit to the new 401(k). There is a 60-day window when you must deposit the funds in the new 401(k) plan to avoid paying taxes.
Rollover 401(k) to an IRA
When rolling over to an IRA, you have a choice of making a direct rollover or an indirect rollover. A direct rollover involves transferring the funds from the 401(k) provider to the financial institution or brokerage managing your IRA. You do not get your hands on the money, and the funds will not be subjected to income taxes.
For an indirect rollover, you can request the 401(k) plan administrator to mail you a check with your 401(k) money. You must transfer the funds into an IRA within 60 days from the date of transfer to avoid paying income taxes and penalties. The amount you receive from your 401(k) plan is less 20% withheld taxes, and you must come up with the entire amount (including the 20% withheld taxes) and deposit it in the IRA account within the 60 days.


Without an Organizational Change Management (OCM) framework, a company could have an issue of minimal buy-in from various stakeholders. Or worse yet, no buy-in at all. Then the change that was meant to improve an organization ends up not being utilized or utilized poorly, having wasted the time, resources, and efforts of all involved. Employees could be frustrated by the change or the communication and implementation tactics of the change and choose to leave the company for a different opportunity.
Effective OCM addresses and works to ease the impact of changes and the transition from the current state to the future state.
Our consultants maximize the potential for positive responses by engaging key resources early in the process, clearly communicating roles and expectations, and delivering appropriate training at the right time.
netlogx is a strong partner who understands what is needed to manage change and has the resources to implement a successful effort.
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Dear Colleagues,
As another year draws to a close, we would like to take a moment to reflect on both the continued challenges faced and the triumphs achieved in efforts to reduce the burden of rotavirus in children globally. In 2021, rotavirus remains a leading cause of diarrhea-associated morbidity and mortality among children under 5—a burden felt most heavily in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia. While new rotavirus vaccine introductions were minimal this year and immunization coverage levels wavered globally, the rigor and persistence of public health efforts remained steadfast. Progress achieved in 2021 included encouraging new research on next generation injectable rotavirus vaccines and the RV3-BB neonatal rotavirus vaccine, WHO prequalifications of ROTAVAC 5D and ROTASIIL-Liquid, and the addition of rotavirus vaccines to the Humanitarian Mechanism. We are hopeful to make even greater strides in the new year, with a reinvigorated vision to regain lost ground and progress even further in our goals to protect the health of all children in 2022. Wishing everyone a safe and healthy start to the new year.
Regards,
Mathu Santosham
In this edition… Rotavirus Vaccine Updates In 2021 Advocacy Initiatives and Resources of 2021 New Research of 2021


摘要
Light/matter interaction of low-dimensional silicon (Si) strongly correlated with its geo-metrical features, which resulted in being highly critical for the practical development of Si-based photovoltaic applications. Yet, orientation modulation together with apt control over the size and spacing of aligned Si nanowire (SiNW) arrays remained rather challenging. Here, we demonstrated that the transition of formed SiNWs with controlled diameters and spacing from the crystallograph-ically preferred <100> to <110> orientation was realized through the facile adjustment of etchant compositions. The underlying mechanism was found to correlate with the competing reactions between the formation and removal of oxide at Ag/Si interfaces that could be readily tailored through the concentration ratio of HF to H
2O 2. By employing inclined SiNWs for the construction of hybrid solar cells, the improved cell performances compared with conventional vertical-SiNW-based hybrid cells were demonstrated, showing the conversion efficiency of 12.23%, approximately 1.12 times higher than that of vertical-SiNW-based hybrid solar cells. These were numerically and experimentally interpreted by the involvement of excellent light-trapping effects covering the wide-angle light illuminations of inclined SiNWs, which paved the potential design for next-generation optoelectronic devices. All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes 化學工程 (全部) 材料科學(全部)


Building on Success: A study of Rural Alberta Communities’ Success Strategies in Attracting and Retaining Health Professionals (2019) Summary
Undersupply of health services in rural Canada remains an ongoing concern. As a result, much time, effort, and funding are being invested in targeted activities to attract health professionals to rural areas.
This study investigated successful strategies that rural communities in Alberta use to attract and retain health professionals. A conceptual framework (Cameron, Este & Worthington, 2012) was adapted and used to guide this study. The framework outlines factors relevant for retention across three domains: community, professional, and family.
Twelve rural Alberta communities participated, selected based on their successful attraction and retention history. Interviews were conducted with health professionals, their partners/spouses, community members, and health-care administrators.
The most important factors for attraction and retention are:
Attraction: health-care infrastructure, professional integration, connections with the community, and partner/spouse integration Retention: community infrastructure, work-life balance, work satisfaction, and partner/spouse integration
The study established that, while communities use a wide range of attraction and retention techniques across the three domains, the most common strategies are as follows:
Community: hosting community welcome tours for physicians and their partners/spouses; showcasing community infrastructure; securing funding for new health-care equipment; organizing events to attract local talent and to recognize health professionals Professional: developing collaborative practice models and strategies to enhance work-life balance and mutual support including flexible on-call scheduling and mentoring for new recruits; creating opportunities for broad scope of practice, research, and continuing education Family: connecting newcomers to people and resources; offering housing support; connecting partners/spouses with jobs and volunteer opportunities Building on Success uncovered many strategies used across the different domains and highlighted the strengths and gaps in current approaches. The lessons learned from this applied research will be incorporated into RhPAP’s community development services. Funders Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta


After the age of 65, new oral challenges are introduced as the body continues to age.
For example, common conditions may include dry mouth, attrition, oral cancer, root decay, and serious gum diseases. Maintaining a healthy mouth by sticking to lifelong dental care habits can help reduce the risk of serious oral conditions.


Transportation by rail may sound old-fashioned, but a single railcar can hold two to three times the amount of dry good product a standard dry van or flatbed truck can hold, often at a more competitive cost. Intermodal lead times can fluctuate, but for shipments which aren’t time-sensitive - such as large inventory purchases - intermodal transportation can cut costs substantially.
Want to know if intermodal shipping could improve your profit margins? Let’s talk.
Ready to get a quote on flatbed trucking? Click, or call to speak with someone now at (616) 466-5959.


In December 2016, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will conduct a GST/HST compliance letter campaign pilot project. The CRA will send 250 letters in December followed by 250 in February, 2,500 in May, and 2,500 in August to GST/HST registrants. Those receiving a letter will be asked to review a previously-submitted GST/HST return with suspected errors and confirm whether the amounts they reported are correct or need to be changed.
The campaign supports the CRA’s increased emphasis on helping individuals and small businesses to better understand their tax obligations and encourages them to correct any errors in their past GST/HST returns. This increased understanding of tax obligations will also serve in promoting compliance going forward.


A comprehensive report from Wilson Elser aims to help employers across all 50 states understand the rights and responsibilities they must consider in the workplace as cannabis legalization efforts take hold across an increasing number of states—and even as the federal Controlled Substances Act remains in place.
The 63-page report, “Cannabis in the Workplace: A Comparative Law Review of Employee Rights and Employer Obligations,” sheds light on four key employment questions raised by cannabis legalization:
Does it “impact an employer’s right to engage in pre-employment drug testing”?
Will employers have to “accommodate cannabis use for treatment of medical conditions”?
Does legalization “provide employees employment protections for off-duty cannabis use”?
Will employers or their workers compensation carriers be required to “reimburse cannabis as a treatment for workplace injuries”?
The report notes that 19 states already recognize protections or accommodations for medical cannabis use by employees. They include Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.
When it comes to workers compensation reimbursement, though, the picture is muddier. The report notes that while workers compensation reimbursement is required in Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York, it has been expressly prohibited in Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, and North Dakota, and not required per statute in Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, Utah, and Vermont. (There is no precedent in the remaining states, except for Idaho, Nebraska, and South Dakota, where there is no legal cannabis).
To read Wilson Elser’s guide and see what requirements your state mandates, click here.


According to the Brembo technicians who work closely with all the MotoGP World Championship riders, the Le Mans circuit is a moderately demanding circuit for the brakes. On a difficulty index scale of 1 to 5, it earned a 3, the lowest score of all the tracks of this year, along with Misano Adriatico and Cheste.
The environmental conditions of October might convince the riders to use carbon discs with a low braking band, to ensure the right operating range in terms of temperature. Even in the event of rain, the majority of the riders will probably opt for carbon rather than steel.
Brembo carbon in MotoGP, whatever the conditions
Over the last three years, Brembo has done away with a long-standing taboo: since carbon was introduced in the premier class, it had always been set aside in rainy situations in favor of steel discs. To ensure a good friction coefficient, carbon needs to reach a temperature of at least 250 °C (482 °F) and, until recently, this was somewhat difficult in wet and rainy conditions.
The carbon developments made by Brembo have allowed the operating temperature range to be widened, however. This, along with the enhanced performance of the engines and tires, has boosted the temperature of the discs even in the rain, meaning that steel has largely fallen by the wayside.


IBM launched Watson Assistant, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered voice assistant for businesses seeking to infuse voice technology into their products, at its annual Think conference on Tuesday.
IBM will license Watson Assistant to enterprises so they can build personalized, interactive experiences into their own products and services that appeal to their customers.
IBM's announcement follows Amazon's November 2017 launch of Alexa for Business platform, which enables businesses to create their own Alexa skills for both practical and business use cases.
Watson Assistant has a heightened focus on customization and privacy over voice competitors like Google and Amazon, which could make it more likely to win over businesses than Alexa or Google Assistant.
It allows for personalization to help businesses better tailor their voice interactions .Developers can create custom voice activation commands and triggers for Watson Assistant, eliminating the need for a standard universal wake word, such as “Alexa” or “OK Google.” Additionally, businesses can train their assistants using their own datasets, making it easier to build actions and commands. It gives users control over their personal data.Each integration of Watson Assistant exclusively holds the data it gathers, which ensures that companies, including IBM, aren’t pooling information on users' activities across various applications. Additionally, consumers have control over which Watson-powered applications and devices can access each other’s data through the IBM cloud, which enables the tech to learn from their actions and remember their preferences.
Integrating voice assistants with the enterprise market can help to unleash new use cases for voice technology. IBM hopes to infuse Watson Assistant with hotels, hospitals, banks, office gadgets, restaurants, connected cars, and more. Already, IBM has partnered with a few businesses for Watson Assistant — Harmon is using Watson Assistant in a Maserati concept car, Munich airport is leveraging Watson Assistant to power a robot to offer visitors directions, and Chameleon Technologies is using Watson Assistant to set temperatures in the house based around consumers daily schedule.


This news came as the Fed approved a 25-basis point rate hike at the latest FOMC meeting on March 15-16th, the first in three years. The yield on the 10-year treasury note has continued to increase since, reaching 2.46% as of the end of March, while BBB-rated U.S. corporate yields have increased by nearly 90% since July 2021, to 4.11%.
While interest rates have immediate impacts on bonds, the impact on commercial real estate is less straightforward. Theoretically higher benchmark rates will put upward pressure on debt costs via higher mortgage rates, which will consequently impact levered IRRs and undermine levered returns achieved by real estate investors. If debt costs rise substantially, it is possible certain investors may experience “negative leverage”, wherein mortgage costs exceed capitalization rates.
However, due to the underlying complexity and operational components of commercial real estate, higher costs of debt will not necessarily dissuade all investors from considering investments. In fact, investors eschewing leverage when acquiring real estate may achieve an advantage. Various factors at the property level will have greater impacts on property performance and returns, such as property management, tenant demand, competitive supply, insurance and property taxes, and required capital expenditures. Additionally, the competitiveness of the debt markets and the ability for lenders to pass on rate increases to borrowers is a substantial factor.
The below graph shows the monthly historical correlation between the 10-year Treasury yield and multifamily mortgage rates (fixed rate mortgages with a 7-10 year loan term) between 2004 and 2022. The positive correlation is undeniably high, with an r-squared of .78, and it is clear that mortgage rates generally rise with interest rates. However, there are periods of time where the relationship breaks down, such as in the final months of 2008 where treasury yields plummeted below 3% and mortgage rates remained above 6%, leading to the cluster of outliers highlighted below. Substituting 10-Year Treasury rates with BBB-rated U.S. corporate bond yields improves the correlation substantially, as real estate and corporate debt are considered to have similar risk and investment characteristics to investors. BBB-rated U.S. corporate bonds are also tied more closely to the perceived health of the economy in which the issuing companies participate, which drives employment, population and economic growth contributing to property fundamentals.
The below graph shows the improved correlation, particularly when a non-linear fit is applied – the below model shape implies that there are minimum and maximum boundaries for residential mortgage rates when corporate credit yields rise above and decline below certain thresholds. Therefore, even in times of deep economic crisis when BBB-rated U.S. corporate yields exceed 10%, like they did in the final months of 2008, residential mortgage rates did not surpass 6.5%.
Implications for Clients and Investors
Given recent volatility in equity and bond markets, it is even more important to understand the impact of interest rates and U.S. corporate credit yields on commercial real estate and the cost of mortgages. So far, interest rate volatility has delayed several CMBS offerings, such as an offering tied to Deutsche Bank’s New York HQ and is having an impact on commercial real estate in real-time. Rising pressure on debt costs has also impacted investor underwriting, leading certain groups to either drop or renegotiate deals, particularly those with tight margins and high levels of leverage.
However, certain investors will stand to benefit from the volatility. Groups using limited or no leverage could have a considerable advantage bidding on and winning deals, particularly in negative leverage situations. Large institutional investors with preferred borrowing status with lenders could also stand to benefit and secure debt for properties that otherwise would not be financed. Additionally, investors that managed to secure low rate fixed-rate debt in 2020 and 2021 can likely count on even greater demand for their portfolio properties.
Sources: Newmark Research, Real Capital Analytics, The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, CNBC


The COVID-19 pandemic and weak global economic outlook, coupled with fragile energy demand has resulted in a decline in oil and gas prices. The all-pervasive nature of these circumstances has also impacted the African midstream sector, forcing several major midstream oil and gas operators to revisit their strategies and reduce capital expenditure for 2020.
As a result, delays in forthcoming pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects have become unavoidable, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Haseeb Ahmed, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Uncertainty in the LNG market, and the severity and duration of the pandemic, hinder long-term LNG supply contracts being signed in the near to medium term. The absence of new long-term contracts and a shift in preference of LNG buyers from long-term supply contracts to short-term contracts or spot purchases, will likely impact the commercial operations or start plans of some of the proposed LNG projects in Africa.”
Global oil and gas majors with operations in Africa such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total SE and BP, have all reduced their overall capex by over 20% for 2020. This has led to certain upcoming projects in the region either getting stalled or delayed. The start years of some LNG projects such as Rovuma, Tortue FLNG Phases 2 and 3, and Mozambique LNG have been pushed back, among others.
Ahmed adds: “The sector has undergone significant losses, thereby pushing companies to take desperate measures such as reducing capex or delaying final investment decisions (FIDs). However, these are only short-term solutions. Midstream companies need to work on long-term strategies to tackle any such future challenge to ensure future business sustainability.”
Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/14122020/african-midstream-operators-withdraw-investments-due-to-covid-19/


Description
After neutering, your dog’s energy needs are reduced and his appetite may increase which could lead to weight gain. ROYAL CANiN MINI STERILISED helps maintain ideal weight in neutered small breed dogs with appropriate daily rations and a formula combining a high protein content with moderate fat intake. This formula is enriched with L-Carnitine. With a specific blend of fibres and a high protein content, ROYAL CANIN MINI STERILISED helps control feeling of hunger between meals. ROYAL CANIN MINI STERILISED helps reduce tartar formation thanks to agents which chelate the calcium saliva. Key Features/Benefits: Healthy weight maintenance Appetite control Dental health
Composition:
Maize, dehydrated poultry protein, wheat, maize gluten, vegetable protein isolate*, vegetable fibres, animal fats, hydrolysed animal proteins, beet pulp, yeasts, fish oil, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides, psyllium husks and seeds, minerals, borage oil.
Additives (per KG):
Nutritional additives: Vitamin A: 20500 IU, Vitamin D3: 900 IU, E1(Iron): 40 mg, E2(Iodine): 4 mg, E4(Copper): 12 mg, E5(Manganese): 52 mg, E6(Zinc): 154 mg, E8(Selenium): 0.07 mg – Technological additives: Clinoptilolite of sedimentary origin: 5 g – Preservatives – Antioxidants.
L.I.P: protein selected for its very high assimilation.
Analytical constituents:
Protein: 30%
Fat content: 13%
Crude fibres: 6.4%
Crude ash: 5.3%
Disclaimer:
The product images have been prepared for information purposes only, and are designed to enhance your shopping experience on the website, it is not a substitute for you reading the product packaging and label prior to use. You should note that products and their ingredients are subject to change. If you do require precise ingredient information you should consult the manufacturer.


Accurately measuring the forage yield is the first critical control point to improve calculations associated with forage yield quantity and nutrient removal calculations.
This free publication is available by download.
This publication is best viewed using the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader. You can download a free copy of the Acrobat Reader from Adobe Systems Incorporated.


Billet prices continued to rise due to tight supply as mills have cut production due to shortage of oxygen. Most of their workforce has also gone back to their hometowns.
The daily Davis Index for billet in Raipur, Monday, rose by Rs400/mt ($4/mt) to Rs42,600/mt ($580/mt) ex-works from Friday, due to supply crunch and increase in sponge iron prices. Some billet deals heard at high offers.
Secondary mills in Raipur are operating at 50-60pc capacity utilisation due to shortage of oxygen and workforce. Mill operators noted that production is unlikely to pick-up pace this month.
Buying in the local steel markets has slowed due to restrictions and lockdowns in many states. Market participants are hopeful that demand will increase once lockdowns are lifted, especially in Chhattisgarh and its neighbouring states.
Offers for pellet sponge iron increased by Rs500/mt Rs29,700/mt ex-works, with limited takers. The daily index was rebar was up by Rs300/mt to Rs46,500/mt ex-works Raipur.
In Mumbai, the index for billet dropped by Rs200/mt to Rs45,300/mt while the index for rebar increased by Rs200/mt to Rs50,800/mt ex-works from Friday, despite subdued demand.
In Mandi Gobindgarh, the daily index for ingot was up by Rs300/mt to Rs46,000/mt ex-works, in line with the rise in local scrap prices.
($1=Rs73.30)


After nearly two decades of continuous military engagement in Afghanistan, the withdrawal of U.S. troops marked a historic inflection point in America’s “forever war.” Our government’s failure to properly assess the cultural and historical nuances of Afghan society and support legitimate local governance enabled the Taliban’s rapid seizure of power.
We’ve watched as President Ashraf Ghani fled his country to avoid bloodshed as the Taliban laid claim to Kabul. We’ve watched as Afghans desperately clung to U.S. jets in a fatal attempt to escape. The rapidly deteriorating state of Afghanistan should be a wake-up call. We must apply the lessons learned in Afghanistan to our broader military engagement overseas to avoid repeating these mistakes.
While the United States’ traditional military strength remains unrivaled, adversarial nations and terrorist organizations have proven capable of outmaneuvering our ability to develop an effective interagency plan on the ground. Our democratic government’s need to make foreign policy decisions based on domestic American sentiment is exploited by great powers who use Gray Zone tactics, such as economic pressures, information operations, cyber threats, and proxy forces. These are low-cost, potent ways for our adversaries to maintain power without triggering a full-scale U.S. military response. If we want to end continuous deployment cycles, we must realign our national strategy to be more effective in the irregular warfare battlefield.
The Biden administration is currently reviewing its Syria policy. Northeast Syria presents a unique opportunity for the U.S. to finally engage in meaningful Gray Zone operations. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) is one of the only entities in the region that embodies American values. The military of the AANES, the Syrian Democratic Forces, has been the most effective partner in the fight against ISIS and has lost more than 11,000 lives.
Our Syrian policy should be focused on supporting a self-sufficient AANES while minimizing American troop involvement. The fastest and least costly way to support our ally would be to provide designated industries with Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licenses to U.S. sanctions and streamline the process. Congress passing legislation that would provide new investment opportunities to American businesses, directing the U.S. Development Finance Corporation and U.S. Trade and Development Agency, would simultaneously support the economy of a burgeoning democracy. This private-sector, interagency approach would have a lasting impact on our national security.
It is critical that we maintain maximum pressure on the Assad regime while taking concrete steps to support the democratic forces on the ground. To that end, this effort would need to be paired with a robust monitoring and enforcement plan to ensure resources were not being redirected to the Assad regime. Properly executed, this plan would not dilute the intent of U.N. Resolution 2254, the only internationally backed plan for easing the Syrian conflict.
As the Biden administration considers its approach to U.S. engagement in Syria, it has a chance to step away from the strategies employed in the region over the last two decades. The people of northeast Syria have shown they want freedom through their actions on the battlefield, democracy through the institutions they’ve created, that they are not afraid of hard work with the reconstruction efforts already underway, and that they are a pluralistic society by empowering women to occupy high positions in government.
What the AANES needs now is our help in priming their economic engine by utilizing a private-public partnership. We cannot let an overly restrictive set of sanctions suffocate their efforts. They have achieved what we, as a nation, spent 20 years trying to put in place in Afghanistan and failed. Their success shows that a determined people, who build their institutions from the ground up, are an effective alternative to failed, American-imposed “nation-building.” Our support ensures they become a model for American foreign policy to defeat our enemies throughout the Middle East.


Missouri's Circuit Breaker Program is a state tax credit for low-income seniors and certain disabled persons. A credit of up to $750 for renters and $1,100 for homeowners, as of 2014, offsets a portion of the rent or property taxes they pay during the year. To claim the credit, you must attach Form MO-PTS, Property Tax Schedule, to your state tax return. If you're not required to file a state tax return, you can file Form MO-PTC, Property Tax Credit Claim, instead.
Age and Disability Status
To qualify for the tax credit, you must live in your Missouri residence for an entire year while paying either real estate taxes or rent for that year; persons living in tax-exempt buildings don't qualify for the credit. You must also be at least 65 years old, under age 65 and 100 percent disabled, at least 60 years old and receiving Social Security benefits as a surviving spouse, or a 100-percent disabled veteran.
Income Requirements
The final requirement is that your income, including your Social Security, falls under a specific threshold. As of 2014, for renters, the threshold is $27,500 if you're single or married but living separately, and $29,000 if you're married and filed a joint return. The homeowner threshold is $30,000 if you're single or married but living separately, and $34,000 if you're married and filed jointly.
References
Resources
Writer Bio
Based on the West Coast, Mary Jane Freeman has been writing professionally since 1994, specializing in the topics of business and law. Freeman's work has appeared in a variety of publications, including LegalZoom, Essence, Reuters and Chicago Sun-Times. Freeman holds a Master of Science in public policy and management and Juris Doctor. Freeman is self-employed and works as a policy analyst and legal consultant.


Play is essential for the healthy growth of young kids. Consequently, kids’ playing tools such as Kuoye Inflatables are crucial for their development. However, you need to have a bounce house buying guide for you to choose the best product, either for your kids to play with at home or for commercial purposes.
Budget
Unquestionably, there are various sizes, types, designs, and qualities of inflatable bouncers. Consequently, their price varies depending on the features in question. Therefore, it is essential to consider these factors and choose an inflatable that is within your budget to avoid financial constraints.
Purpose of the inflatable (commercial or residential)
Many individuals use inflatables differently. For instance, some may use them for residential purposes, to entertain their kids, while others may use them for commercial purposes. Subsequently, if you are looking commercial inflatables, then the quality is vital. You need to have the right quality if you are using them for business to ensure they last for a more extended period.
Product weight
In most cases, individuals who are in inflatables business are required to relocate to different places depending on the business demand. As a result, that may have made you wonder how heavy a bounce house is. However, the weight varies depending on the material quality and the sizes of the house in question. Therefore, you must consider the weight before purchasing an inflatable, for easy portability.
Height of the product
Similarly, the height of an inflatable is also essential. Some kids have more inflatable fun by climbing it high and then jumping safely. Also, high slide inflatables make kids enjoy more due to the long slides. Consequently, it is essential you check the real slide climbing height, and not the design height.
The estimated age group of the playing kids
Inflatables houses are designed for kids. However, the question, “can adults use a bounce house?” may arise regularly. In response, adults may damage the inflatable or reduce its lifespan due to their heavyweight. Therefore, it is essential to consider the age group of the kids intended to play on the inflatable so that you can choose the right quality than can withstand relatively heavyweight.
Safety features of the product
Safety is a vital issue when it comes to children games. Therefore, you should buy playing tools that are safe for fun enthusiasts. Consequently, you should look for safety ratings when you are looking for the best commercial inflatables.
Size of the inflatable
Additionally, size is a critical factor to be considered while purchasing the inflatables. For instance, if you want to buy an indoor bounce house for your kids, you need a smaller size that can fit in your house space. Conversely, if you want a commercial inflatable pool, for example, a big size would better since it can accommodate a more substantial capacity.
Thebottom lineInflatables areessential in kids’ life. They ideal for their healthy growth, keep thementertained and enable them to socialize more easily. However, according tothis bounce house buyingguide, there are some essential features you need to consider beforepurchasing one. Size, purpose, height, weight, estimated users’ age group,safety measures, and size are essential considerations.


Ambient particulate matter (PM) is a leading global environmental health risk. Current air quality regulations are based on airborne mass concentration. However, PM from different sources have distinct chemical compositions and varied toxicity. Connections between emission control measures, air quality, PM composition, and toxicity remain insufficiently elucidated. The current study assessed the composition and toxicity of PM collected in Nanjing, China before, during, and after an air quality intervention for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games. A co-culture model that mimics the alveolar epithelium with the associated macrophages was created using A549 and THP-1 cells. These cells were exposed to size-segregated inhalable PM samples. The composition and toxicity of the PM samples were influenced by several factors including seasonal variation, emission sources, and the air quality intervention. For example, we observed a size-dependent shift in particle mass concentrations during the air quality intervention with an emphasized proportion of smaller particles (PM2.5) present in the air.The roles of industrial and fuel combustion and traffic emissions were magnified during the emission control period. Our analyses revealed that the PM samples demonstrated differential cytotoxic potencies at equal mass concentrations between sampling periods, locations, and time of day, influenced by variations in the predominant emission sources. Coal combustion and industrial emissions were the most important sources affecting the toxicological responses and displayed the least variation in emission contributions between the sampling periods. In conclusion, emission control mitigated cytotoxicity and oxidative stress for particles larger than 0.2 mu m, but there was inadequate evidence to determine if it was the key factor reducing the harmful effects of PM0.2.


Which of the following represent the step III of Pain Management Ladder? 1. Strong opioids + NSAIDS ± adjuvants 2.Read more
If the density of the 20ml oil is 0.9624g/ml then what would be the weight of it? 1. 115.488 gRead more
Morphine overdose lead to respiratory and CNS depression. It can be reversed by the use __________: 1. Naloxone 2. FlumazenilRead more
Buffer is the agent that is characterized by resistance to pH change. It is the combination of __________: 1. StrongRead more
Which of the following is not the property of carbon tetrachloride? 1. Zero dipole moment 2. Perfect symmetry 3. Non-polarRead more
Which of the following is not characteristics of suppositories?: 1. Melts at room temperature 2. Have sharp shape 3. HaveRead more
One of the most likely adverse event produced by the heparin therapy is __________: 1. Hypertension 2. Skin necrosis 3.Read more
The exposure to which pharmaceutical drug agent leads to Reye’s syndrome? 1. Aspirin 2. Indomethacin 3. Morphine 4. Cyclosporin AnswerRead more
The purpose of the pregnancy kit is to identify the presence of ____________: 1. Progesterone 2. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG)Read more
Which of the following is categorized in primary literature? 1. Special reports 2. Systematic reviews 3. Original clinical trials 4.Read more


Degree Name
BS
Department
Neuroscience
College
Life Sciences
Defense Date
2022-05-26
Publication Date
2022-06-10
First Faculty Advisor
Derin J. Cobia
First Faculty Reader
Jared Nielsen
Honors Coordinator
Rebekka Matheson
Keywords
schizophrenia, sexual dimorphism, limbic system, hippocampus, amygdala, computational
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a significant number of individuals in the United States and can have numerous different symptoms. Recently, interest in the differences between the neuroanatomy of individuals with schizophrenia and individuals without schizophrenia has emerged, specifically the sexual dimorphism in individuals with schizophrenia. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of the sexual dimorphisms of two structures in the limbic system: the hippocampus and amygdala. Data was harmonized and analyzed from two datasets to determine the sexual dimorphic factor of these structures in healthy controls and individuals with schizophrenia. Demographic features were also taken into consideration for all subjects. It was found that women with schizophrenia exhibited an inward deformation in both the hippocampus and amygdala, whereas men with schizophrenia exhibited an outward deformation in the hippocampus. These results suggest that men and women with schizophrenia do possess differences between the hippocampus and amygdala and that these differences may impact symptom manifestation and potential treatments.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Madrid, Kennedy S., "Examining Limbic Sexual Dimorphisms in Schizophrenia" (2022).
Undergraduate Honors Theses. 250. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/250 Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/uht0253


Overview
Metro relies on energy to operate our system – it powers our operational facilities, fuels our vehicles and runs our rail systems. The use and sourcing of that energy has ongoing impacts and longstanding implications for the environmental, fiscal and infrastructural resilience of our system. Metro's building energy consumption alone accounts for just over 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity consumption per year across our extensive inventory of facilities in LA County. These building operations are critical to support over 1.2 million weekday rail and bus transit patrons. As such, Metro is taking proactive measures to implement innovative energy conservation practices and technologies in buildings, while procuring and generating more clean, renewable sources of energy wherever possible.
Program Highlights Working Towards an Energy Resilient Future
Metro is a strategic partner in creating an energy resilient LA County through long-range planning, operational continuity and environmental stewardship initiatives. Metro is a lifeline to many in our region, so we recognize the critical importance of keeping the energy infrastructure that powers our bus and rail systems up and running. Metro identifies and deploys cost effective and energy efficient solutions to reduce greenhouse gas and criteria air pollutant emissions, while keeping Metro running even if the electrical grid goes down.
In 2020, Metro hosted a landmark, three-part
Energy Resiliency Series with top regional sustainability and climate action leaders to better understand how their resilient energy system solutions could be applied to Metro’s long-range energy resilience strategies, as well as viable cutting-edge solutions from industry experts. The series featured roundtable discussions and panels of academics, government officials and industry professionals from the California Energy Commission, the City of LA, LA County, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP), Southern California Gas, the University of California Los Angeles and more.
The series provided valuable input to support Metro and our partners in establishing an actionable roadmap for our resilient energy systems. These events highlighted the many co-benefits to pursuing energy resilience for Metro with the region, ranging from climate protection to emergency preparedness, focusing on mission-critical loads in strategic locations across our service territory.
The Energy Resiliency Series reinforced the importance of transparency, knowledge sharing and proactive collaboration as key to a more resilient LA County. We look forward to continuing work with our partners across the region to provide reliable transportation services to those who need it – especially when they need it most.
Microgrid Feasibility - Metro’s Path Toward Distributed Energy
Metro’s long-term energy resource strategy is focused on mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing reliance on the electrical grid and diversifying sources of energy.
Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are decentralized energy sources that incorporate renewable energy and storage technologies, such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and batteries, to generate and store electricity. Installing DERs ensures that Metro is using clean renewable energy to power its system, but it is also a key strategy in ensuring that we can operate during times of high electricity demand or grid outages, all while yielding cost savings for Metro. This strategy has already realized substantial benefits for Metro; since 2005, Metro has installed over 2.6 MW of on-site solar PV arrays at seven locations, collectively generating 1,685,108 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean electricity in 2020.
To achieve our ambitious 2030 energy conservation and renewable energy generation goals, Metro is working to deploy additional DERs across our system, with particular attention to
microgrid technology. Microgrids are interconnected systems of DERs that can operate in parallel with, or independently of, the grid to power critical systems.
In 2019, Metro completed a Phase I Microgrid Feasibility Study evaluating current infrastructure and the viability of a microgrid solution. The assessment considered several models and associated costs – a proof-of-concept to identify constraints and opportunities – using the Metro L Line (Gold) for analysis. Metro is now entering Phase II of this study, to further identify opportunities for deployment of microgrids.
Metro is also leveraging partnerships to explore additional DER solutions. During 2019 and 2020, Metro developed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to install 1.06 MW of PV arrays at Divisions 11, 14 and 22, projected to offset over two million kWh of procured utility electricity annually starting in 2023. Additionally, Metro is supporting a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) for DER technology deployment across its service territory. These efforts will support Metro in achieving its vision for a future powered by local, clean and distributed energy resources.
Reducing Energy Use and Cost Through Energy Efficient Technologies
Despite system growth and increasing demand, Metro is committed to reducing systemwide energy use. We will reduce our facility electricity consumption by 17% from the 2030 business as usual scenario by implementing energy efficient technologies.
The collective results of the following efforts will form a new 10-year strategy and capital expenditure plan to install high-efficiency energy systems across the agency by 2030:
During 2019 - 2020, Metro conducted a series of assessments to identify Metro’s next generation of energy efficiency projects. In 2020, Metro performed a comprehensive Building Management System (BMS) assessment to identify system performance and efficiency improvements at each operating division, developing consistent standards, specifications, guidelines and practices. Metro performed a systemwide audit of all facilities to identify opportunities for upgrades or new installations of energy efficient equipment, such as lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Metro is developing commissioning policies and guidelines to standardize our project commissioning requirements, providing a best practices level of commissioning authority and oversight to improve system efficiency and performance.
These assessments and audits are critical steps toward identifying and scoping specific projects, but our energy efficiency efforts are not limited to evaluations alone. Following the four parking structure lighting retrofits completed in 2018, Metro has been scoping an LED Lighting Program for the parking garage at Union Station Gateway to replace existing fixtures with new LED lamps by 2023. Upon completion, this project is estimated to reduce energy consumption by 866,000 kWh annually.
Together, these efforts will lead to tangible energy efficiency outcomes reflecting our commitment to responsible stewardship of energy resources – even as our system expands.
2030 Targets Understanding This Target
This target measures Metro’s use of electricity in our buildings, maintenance facilities and other structures to provide power, heating and cooling and other building functions. Metro’s total energy consumption is expected to increase as a result of aggressive expansion of the rail system and our commitment to increasing our electrified bus assets. Despite this growth and increasing demand, we are dedicated to reducing our energy consumption. We have identified multiple opportunities to achieve a 17% reduction in facility electricity consumption compared to the 2030 Business as Usual scenario. These include implementing already identified energy projects, instituting an enterprise-level BMS and adopting a formal facility commissioning and retro-commissioning policy.
Target Performance
In 2020, facility electricity consumption declined by 10% from 2019. A majority of this decline is assumed to be due to reduced operations and service resulting from the pandemic, as many of our operating divisions and transit stations experienced generally consistent decreases in electricity usage. As Metro returns to standard operation, we naturally expect some increase in consumption at our facilities in the coming years. However, we do expect a handful of energy efficiency projects to come online in that time period that will yield substantive savings with respect to electricity and cost, including the LED Lighting Program for the parking garage at Union Station. Our total consumption of facility electricity in 2020 was nearly 9.3 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) lower than our 2020 goal, meaning that Metro is well on its way to achieving its 17% BAU reduction target by 2030.
Understanding This Target
This target measures Metro’s capacity to generate clean, renewable energy through onsite energy generation assets. Onsite renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, is a critical strategy contributing to both our climate and energy resiliency goals. As of 2020, Metro owned and operated 2.6 megawatts (MW) of solar PV across eight facilities. However, we are working aggressively to increase renewable energy generation capacity through installations at multiple operating divisions, the newly constructed Location 64 and the Airport Metro Connector by 2023. Together, these projects will help us achieve our 2030 goal of 7.5 MW of renewable energy capacity – tripling 2020 capacity levels. As a new target, Metro’s renewable energy capacity will be measured against this 2020 baseline.
Target Performance
Onsite renewable energy capacity went unchanged in 2019 or 2020, and remains at 2.6 MW. However, we expect this number to increase by 2023, at which point multiple new solar PV installations are expected to be installed and come online. This includes an estimated 1.06 MW of PV arrays at Divisions 11, 14 and 22 per a Power Purchase Agreement developed by Metro over the past two years. We are assessing and continuing to identify additional opportunities for rooftop solar and other onsite renewable energy installations to increase onsite capacity within the next five years.


Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto and current producer of Roundup brand weed killer, has agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle an estimated 95,000 active cases involving allegations that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The settlement represents approximately 75% of the company’s active case load, leaving at least 30,000 unresolved claims. As part of the deal, around $9.6 billion will be allocated to all existing cases, including those cases with plaintiffs that have not yet agreed to the package. An additional $1.25 billion will be allocated for future claims and to create a scientific panel that will determine if Roundup causes cancer. Bayer has agreed that if the panel determines that Roundup is a carcinogen, it will be precluded from arguing that it does not cause cancer in future cases. Conversely, if the panel determines the product is not a carcinogen, plaintiffs that are part of the settlement group will be prohibited from arguing otherwise in Roundup cases.
The first matter alleging that Roundup causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was the
Johnson case filed in California in March of 2016. The case came before Bayer purchased Monsanto in June 2018 and following the World Health Organization’s designation of glyphosate, a key chemical in Roundup, as a probable carcinogen. In Johnson, a unanimous jury awarded the plaintiff $289 million in damages, which include $250 in punitive damages after finding that Monsanto acted maliciously by failing to warn consumers of Roundup’s cancer risks. The court subsequently reduced the punitive damages award to $39.25 million and Bayer has noted that it will continue to pursue its appeal of the entire Johnson verdict.
Following
Johnson, Bayer sustained two additional plaintiffs’ verdicts. In March 2019, a San Francisco jury awarded Edwin Hardeman $80 million, which was reduced to $25 million. In May 2019, a jury awarded Alva and Alberta Pilliod over $2 billion, which was reduced to $86 million. In each of these cases, the jurors were convinced that Roundup was a substantial contributing cause of the plaintiffs’ non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and that Monsanto had acted maliciously. Bayer has stated that it will also continue its appeal of these verdicts.
Bayer has and continues to argue that there is no scientific evidence that Roundup is a carcinogen. This position is backed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has issued multiple reports concluding, as recently as January 2020, that it has found no health risks associated with glyphosate when used in accordance with product labeling. The current Roundup label includes warnings regarding potential eye and lung irritation but no notice of any cancer risk. The National Institutes of Health also conducted a study of American agricultural workers and found no association between glyphosate and cancer.
As part of its current settlement agreement, Bayer is not required to admit liability or any wrongdoing. In a statement, the company reiterated its position that it does not believe Roundup poses any risk of cancer and that this settlement represents a strategic decision to try to bring closure to the litigation. Bayer has also announced that it will continue to sell Roundup without any changes to the product label.
Although the Bayer settlement may effectively end Roundup cases, plaintiffs will retain the opportunity to pursue numerous manufacturers of other glyphosate-based herbicides. The risk to other manufacturers and the incentive to plaintiffs’ firms will rest heavily on whether juries continue to award punitive damages. In California, punitive damages are based on a finding of malice, meaning either “conduct which is intended by the defendant to cause injury to the plaintiff or despicable conduct which is carried on by the defendant with a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others.”[1]
In his ruling in the
Hardeman case, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria agreed that Monsanto should be punished for disregarding the safety of others, noting that the “evidence easily supported a conclusion that Monsanto was more concerned with tamping down safety inquiries and manipulating public opinion than it was with ensuring its product is safe.”[2] Interestingly, Judge Chhabria also noted that there was no evidence showing that Monsanto acted intentionally to conceal a known or obvious safety risk.
Judge Chhabria’s ruling leaves some ambiguity as to whether punitive damages will be permitted for other companies that sell glyphosate-based weed killer. Monsanto first synthesized glyphosate in 1970 and held the exclusive right to sell the product in the United States until September 2000. Companies that started incorporating glyphosate into their own weed killer after September 2000 are arguably less culpable for promoting product testing to ensure consumer safety and there is unlikely to be similar evidence that they acted to quell any such research. Judge Chhabria’s ruling suggests that without this evidence, an award of punitive damages is inappropriate. Additionally, without the emotional element associated with evidence of deceptive practices, jurors may put greater weight on the contradictory science between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
In short, while the Bayer settlement may provide certainty regarding its Roundup cases, the broader picture of glyphosate litigation remains unclear.
[1]
See Cal. Civ. Code § 3294(c)(1).
[2] A copy of Judge Chhabria’s ruling can be found here: https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/2019/07/Judge-ruling-on-Hardeman-damages.pdf.
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Not everyone understands what an estate involves. Many assume that an estate refers to the assets of a deceased person who had a high net worth. That’s not an accurate definition, as people of even modest means have an estate when they pass away in Alabama. Essentially, an estate refers to all assets and property owned by the deceased. Devising an estate plan allows the planner to determine what happens to those assets, among other matters.
Devising an estate plan
Writing a last will and testament allows someone to decide which beneficiaries receive what assets and might task them with specified responsibilities. The planning stage also allows the testator to choose an executor to act as the estate’s representative. Such planning could avoid the alternative: allowing Alabama’s intestate laws to govern the distribution of assets when someone dies without a will.
If someone does not take the time to craft a workable estate plan, arguments and other strife may occur with surviving family members and others. Burdening family members with otherwise avoidable problems could make dealing with someone’s passing even worse.
Other elements of estate planning
Planning an estate could involve other duties besides writing a will. Some decisions could involve exploring options to move assets outside of probate, such as designating transfer-on-death beneficiaries on certain financial accounts. Others may consider setting up a trust.
Estate planning may involve financial directives during the planner’s life. An older adult might choose to direct decisions to an agent under a power of attorney contract. Others could be unfamiliar with tax matters or investing and sign such duties to a relative.
Health issues could worry someone who fears becoming incapacitated. A living will or a health care proxy document might address those matters.


Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin. Its role in the operations of our bodies is diverse — from maintaining the nervous system, red blood cells, and energy metabolism to the proper functioning of our brains, hearts, livers, and kidneys. It is, in fact, essential for optimal health, performance, and well-being.


Thrombocytopenia in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) can be attributed to multiple factors. Most often it is disease related. It is usually mild and if severe often associated with severe COVID-19 disease. It can also be due to drugs (Remdesivir, Tocilizumab) or coinfection with other viruses. Here we report two cases of severe thrombocytopenia in COVID-19 due to dengue coinfection. Most often the thrombocytopenia in dengue is self-resolving, and a careful “wait and watch” should suffice unlike COVID-19, where steroids can help if the cytopenia is due to cytokine storm or immune-mediated effects.
Xu P, Zhou Q, Xu J. Mechanism of thrombocytopenia in COVID-19 patients. Ann Hematol 2020;99(6):1205–1258. DOI: 10.1007/s00277-020-04019-0.
Lippi G, Plebani M, Henry BM. Thrombocytopenia is associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections: a meta-analysis. Clin Chim Acta 2020;506:145–148. DOI: 10.1016/j.cca.2020.03.022.
Sadr S, SeyedAlinaghi S, Ghiasvand F, Hassan Nezhad M, Javadian N, Hossienzade R, et al. Isolated severe thrombocytopenia in a patient with COVID-19: a case report. IDCases 2020;21:e00820. DOI: 10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00820.
Chen W, Yang B, Li Z, Wang P, Chen Y, Zhou H. Sudden severe thrombocytopenia in a patient in the recovery stage of COVID-19. Lancet Haematol 2020;7(8):e624. DOI: 10.1016/S2352-3026(20)30175-7.
Malik J, Javaid M, Majedi O, Ishaq U, Zahid T. Paying in blood: a case of thrombocytopenia in Covid-19. Cureus 2020;12(8):e9791. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.9791.
Varghese B, Kumaran JA. Trend of dengue fever in COVID-19 period: observation from Kerala, India. Int J Commun Med Publ Health 2020;7(8):3307. DOI: 10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203419.
Wollina U, Karadağ AS, Rowland-Payne C, Chiriac A, Lotti T. Cutaneous signs in COVID -19 patients: a review. Dermatol Ther 2020;33(5):e13549. DOI: 10.1111/dth.13549.
Thomas E, John M, Kanish B. Mucocutaneous manifestations of dengue fever. Indian J Dermatol 2010;55(1):79. DOI: 10.4103/0019-5154.60359.
Miah MDA, Husna A. Coinfection, coepidemics of COVID-19, and dengue in dengue-endemic countries: a serious health concern. J Med Virol 2020. Online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1002/jmv.26269.
Yan G, Lee CK, Lam LTM, Yan B, Chua YX, Lim AYN, et al. Covert COVID-19 and false-positive dengue serology in Singapore. Lancet Infect Dis 2020;20(5):536. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30158-4.


In February 2012, two years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a proposed rule, which was subject to significant public comment, concerning reporting and returning certain Medicare overpayments (“Proposed Rule”). On February 12, 2016, four years from the issuance of the Proposed Rule (and six years after passage of the ACA), CMS issued the final rule, which becomes effective on March 14, 2016 (“A and B Final Rule”).
The A and B Final Rule applies only to providers and suppliers under Medicare Parts A and B. The return of overpayments under Medicare Parts C and D are addressed in a final rule that was published by CMS in May 2014 (“C and D Final Rule”). To date, no final regulations have been adopted that address Medicaid requirements.


The chart of the week looks at the Federal Reserve’s, or the Fed’s, “Dot Plot”. This is each member’s expectations of where the federal funds rate will be in the future, with each represented by their own dot. As you can see, it is currently at its lowest value, 0-0.25%, but starting in 2022 members believe this rate will increase. This will be watched very closely going into 2022, as the Fed recently announced the start of their tapering by purchasing less bonds in the open market. This is expected to end near the middle of 2022 and could signal the start of interest rate hikes.


Approved Research Risk assessment, early diagnosis and treatment prediction of age-related diseases using ophthalmic data. Lay summary
Aims:This project aims to enable the risk assessment, early diagnosis and treatment prediction of age-related diseases using ophthalmic data.
Scientific rationale: Age-related diseases, including cardiovascular, neuro-degenerative diseases and ophthalmic disorders, are the leading cause of death and major burden of global health system. Assessing risk, diagnosing in early course and predicting prognosis is crucial for highly effective health management. However, current medical examination methods for these diseases are split in several departments of the hospital and some of the common methods are invasive, which promotes the need for novel non-invasive integrated examinations. Ophthalmic examination, including color fundus photograph and optical coherence tomography, provides us with comprehensive and detailed observation of human eyes through non-invasive medical procedure. More than this, the features derived from ophthalmic examination is thought to be linked to multiple systemic clinical conditions. For example, the imaging data of retina enables us to directly observe retinal vessels and analyze the vasculature alterations due to either physiological of pathological changes, such as cardiovascular disease and neuro-degenerative dysfunction. We think there is great promise of adopting multi-modality ophthalmic data for assisting whole course administration and management of major age-related diseases. With the development of statistics, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, scientists are capable of exploring big data and revealing deeper relationship between genetic, epidemic and clinical features, which lays the ground for preciser risk assessment, earlier diagnosis and more accurate prognosis prediction.
Project duration: 36 months.
Public health impact: This project aims at millions of population who are at the risk of aging-diseases. The non-invasive risk assessment, early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of major diseases through ophthalmic data provides great promise in reducing the socioeconomic burden and improving people's life quality.


The authors reviewed literature on White identity terrorism and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) and analyzed social media data from six platforms that host extremist content. They developed a network map that evaluates REMVE network construction, connectivity, geographic location, and proclivity to violence and found that users in the United States are overwhelmingly responsible for REMVE discourse online.


Dutch company launches new ePrivacy platform for simple cookie and third-party script management compliant with GDPR and ePrivacy. Amsterdam, Netherlands — Digital Data Solutions BV launches CookieFirst, a new ePrivacy platform for third-party script and cookie consent management, offering statistics, periodic cookie scans, automated Cookie Declaration, banner customization, multiple language options, and more.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) stipulates that websites cannot load third-party scripts, such as those enabling a chat, collecting user data, or profiling for online advertisements, until the visitor has given explicit permission. Websites that comply with this cookie legislation show a banner that lets visitors choose to allow or refuse different cookie categories.
(Un)informed Consent: Studying GDPR Consent Notices in the Field, a study by Ruhr University of Bochum and the University of Michigan, says that, in more than 80% of cases studied, third-party scripts load and place cookies before the user gives permission. This may not always be intentional, however — it could be the result of the incorrect implementation of cookie consent software.
CookieFirst: simple, effective cookie and third-party script management
CookieFirst aims to make it as easy as possible for companies to comply with EU cookie legislation. Rather than placing third-party tracking scripts — Google Analytics, Hotjar tracking, or Intercom chat, for example — on their website, managers place them directly into their CookieFirst portal, meaning only the CookieFirst script needs to be placed on the website itself. CookieFirst generates a banner and consent panel, allowing the user to determine which scripts they wish to allow.
Automated Cookie Declaration
In order to fully comply with the AVG, ePrivacy, and cookie legislation, a website must have a complete overview of all the cookies placed on their site called a Cookie Declaration. In addition to creating a consent panel, CookieFirst periodically scans a website for scripts and automatically generates a Cookie Declaration, ensuring the consent panel is up to date and compliant.
Advanced insights and options available
In addition to its main functionalities, CookieFirst provides insights into statistics and consent audit trails. The platform also offers options to personalize the cookie banner and consent panel, including multiple languages and design customizations to fit seamlessly into any website.
Digital Data Solutions BV plans to expand the CookieFirst platform with various new privacy and compliance functionalities which will be announced on the CookieFirst roadmap.


A carbon credit is a currency that rewards performers who perform without direct mitigations. It also rewards those who create net mitigations. This practice has sparked the development of proper carbon markets. Carbon credits must be certifiable, specific, and consistent. They also need to be enforceable and identify mitigations that have occurred. A properly functioning … Read more


Abstract :
Dyssynchrony of circadian rhythms is associated with various disorders, including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The cell autonomous molecular clock maintains circadian control; however, environmental factors that may cause circadian dyssynchrony either within or between organ systems are poorly understood. Our laboratory recently reported that the endothelin (ET-1) B ([ET.sub.B]) receptor functions to facilitate [Na.sup.+] excretion in a time of day-dependent manner. Therefore, the present study was designed to determine whether high salt (HS) intake leads to circadian dyssynchrony within the kidney and whether the renal endothelin system contributes to control of the renal molecular clock. We observed that HS feeding led to region-specific alterations in circadian clock components within the kidney. For instance, HS caused a significant 5.5-h phase delay in the peak expression of Bmall and suppressed Cry1 and Per2 expression in the renal inner medulla, but not the renal cortex, of control rats. The phase delay in Bmall expression appears to be mediated by ET-1 because this phenomenon was not observed in the [ET.sub.B]-deficient rat. In cultured inner medullary collecting duct cells, ET-1 suppressed Bmall mRNA expression. Furthermore, Bmall knockdown in these cells reduced epithelial [Na.sup.+] channel expression. These data reveal that HS feeding leads to intrarenal circadian dyssynchrony mediated, in part, through activation of [ET.sub.B] receptors within the renal inner medulla. circadian rhythm; dyssynchrony; Bmall; kidney; salt doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00028.2017.


Top 5 Gluten-Free Breakfast Foods
If you're looking for a tasty Gluten-Free breakfast, you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll discuss some options, including pancakes, donuts, and oatmeal. Quinoa and Oatmeal are other options. Here's a quick list of all-natural gluten-free breakfast foods. All of them are delicious! Read on to find the right one for you.
Donuts
One of the easiest ways to add a gluten-free twist to your daily donut is to bake your donuts without adding gluten. By replacing eggs and butter with a gluten-free alternative, you can create delicious, fluffy donuts with very little gluten. The key is to choose a flour recipe that meets your specific needs. A gluten-free donut recipe requires a large bowl of flour, baking powder, flax, salt, and spices. A medium bowl will have the butter, sugar, and eggs. Slice the apples into thin pieces (about 1/4 inch), and add them to the batter.
Some people are unable to tolerate gluten and need a dietary replacement. However, donuts are often available at local stores or in shelf-stable stores. While gluten is an inedible protein that is found in most wheat products, it cannot be separated from the grains. Most donut recipes contain all-purpose flour, enriched flour, and a blend specifically made for baking. Fortunately, there are alternatives to donuts that are gluten-free.
While doughnuts may be considered a dessert, they don't have the same nutritional value as a Krispy Kreme. However, they are sweet, satisfying, and gluten-free. A good breakfast doughnut can keep your husband from sneaking to the drive-through. A donut is not an invisible surveillance device or a stun gun, but it stands a pretty good chance of keeping your husband from stealing one, and is definitely worth a try.
Pancakes
Gluten-Free pancakes are the perfect meal for a light, healthy breakfast. They have a classic pancake taste, with a slight tang from the buttermilk. These recipes are surprisingly healthy, starting with whole-grain sorghum flour, which is high in fiber, antioxidants, and minerals. Another important ingredient is sticky sweet rice flour, which adds texture and protein to the pancakes. Using a gluten-free flour blend in your pancake recipe will give you a great tasting, nutritious breakfast!
The dry ingredients should be combined into a large mixing bowl. This will make them lighter in texture and prevent big lumps of flour from forming in the batter. You should also whisk the egg separately to make sure that the mixture is well combined. Next, grease or pre-heat a pancake pan. When the batter is ready, add the blueberries and continue to cook until the pancakes are cooked and crispy. If you want to keep them warm, place them on a baking sheet.
If you want to have a nutty flavor, try using sorghum flour. This is a healthier alternative to regular sugar and will add a richer flavor. You can also use pure maple syrup if you prefer a sweeter taste. When mixing the batter, use a large scooper to make them more uniform in size. You can also top them with jam, yogurt, or even blueberries.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal as a gluten free breakfast food can be tricky. While the cereal has no gluten, it can still contain traces of it, especially when it is flavored. Some brands even contain traces of gluten in the added ingredients. To ensure that your oatmeal is gluten-free, look for a "gluten free" stamp on the packaging. Alternatively, you can cook it up and serve it as a quick breakfast.
Another option for making gluten-free oatmeal is baking it. Whether you're making muffins or baking cookies, oatmeal makes a great gluten-free breakfast food. The addition of pears makes these delicious baked oatmeals a treat. While they can be a great snack, the muffins have a natural sweetness that won't overwhelm you. A few slices of banana and a spoonful of honey will help you to customize the flavor of your oatmeal.
If you're looking for an alternative to oatmeal, try baking it into cookies or crumbles. This tasty breakfast food contains oats, nut butter, applesauce, and maple syrup instead of refined sugar. You won't miss out on the flavor or texture of a traditional cookie! These cookies are also a great way to get your day started without any refined sugar. You can even add a spoonful of peanut butter to your oatmeal before you bake it.
Quinoa
If you have a dairy allergy, you might want to try quinoa as a gluten-free breakfast food. This ancient grain is a great way to start your day, as it is easy to prepare. To make it even more nutritious, simmer it in milk for a couple of minutes. Adding fruit and nuts is another great way to make this breakfast food. Quinoa can also be eaten as a snack.
Although quinoa is naturally gluten-free, it can cause problems for people with celiac disease. While it is safe for most people, you should be aware that some brands of quinoa are processed with gluten-containing ingredients, so you should choose products with labels clearly stating "gluten-free."
The next time you're making quinoa for a gluten-free breakfast, try adding some apples to your bowl. You can also add 2 tablespoons of chopped or ground nuts. To make quinoa for breakfast, you can either add more milk or water, or substitute the milk. Once you've mixed the milk and quinoa, it's time to add fruit. You'll be surprised by how delicious and nutritious quinoa can be!
Quinoa is a great gluten-free alternative to bread, cereal, or pasta. It is a complete protein that contains all nine essential amino acids, making it an excellent gluten-free breakfast food. In addition, it is rich in calcium, magnesium, manganese, and vitamin B. It is also considered one of the least allergenic grains. The resulting protein is more than enough for a satisfying and satiating meal.
Biscuits and gravy
When it comes to gluten-free biscuits and gravy, you can make them at home without worrying about cross-contamination. This traditional southern breakfast dish combines fluffy, buttery biscuits with savory sausage gravy for the ultimate comfort food. This breakfast food is so satisfying and filling that it is often served at brunches and as a side dish. The following recipe makes a gluten-free version of biscuits and gravy that tastes just as good as the original.
Start by preparing the biscuits. A good biscuit recipe will provide golden-brown edges and a traditional crumb texture. Biscuits should be cooked through and the gravy should be bubbly. If you prefer a less-creamy gravy, you can use vegan butter or other alternative butter. These are often higher in moisture than regular dairy butter, and may require less milk. Make enough to serve six to eight guests.
If you want to make your own biscuits, you can use a mix of tapioca flour, brown rice flour, and xanthan gum. You can also substitute almond milk or soy milk for hemp milk. Alternatively, you can use regular milk for making your biscuits. This recipe will yield the biscuits that you're looking for. A tasty and filling breakfast food, biscuits are perfect for the weekend!
Donuts from Lemons for Lulu
If you're on a gluten-free diet, you may want to try a chia pudding for breakfast. This dish is made with pumpkin and chia seeds, and is delicious with eggs or runny ones. You can also make breakfast potatoes in the air fryer at home. You can add ketch or maple syrup for a tasty treat. Lemons for Lulu also offers chia pudding and donuts.
You can also try other breakfast foods that are free from gluten. These include oatmeal muffins and blueberry galettes. These items are naturally gluten-free and packed into individual portions for the week. The Lemons for Lulu website also offers a recipe for an instant pot egg casserole. You can add whatever you want. You can even get creative and add a little cinnamon and almond butter to make the dish taste delicious.
To make donuts, you must first prepare the dough. You will need about two inches of oil at 360degF. Unlike gluten dough, this dough needs more time to cook than regular donuts. To ensure a consistent oil temperature, you can use a candy thermometer. Meanwhile, place a wire rack over a baking sheet. Drop the dough into the oil face down and fry for two minutes per side. Once fried, transfer them to the wire rack to cool.


Micromotors are self-propelled microscopic robots, measuring about the width of a human hair, designed to perform a host of biomedical tasks in the body, such as drug delivery and ablation. However, keeping these devices intact as they travel through the body remains a hurdle. Now, a study from researchers at UCSD develops a way to encapsulate microbots into pills. The team states their pill’s coating successfully protects the devices as they traverse the digestive system prior to releasing their drug payload. The study is published in the journal
ACS Nano.
Recent studies from the lab utilized microbots coated with an antibiotic to treat ulcers in mice, leading to better results where drugs alone were used. However, it was shown body fluids, such as gastric acid and other intestinal juices, can compromise the effectiveness of micromotors, triggering the early release of their payloads with some of the micromotors getting trapped in the esophagus. The current study develops a way to protect and carry these devices into the stomach without compromising their mobility or effectiveness.
The current study develops a pill composed of lactose and maltose sugars capable of encapsulating tens of thousands of micromotors made of a magnesium/titanium dioxide core loaded with a fluorescent dye cargo. These sugars were chosen because they are easy to mold into a tablet, can disintegrate when needed, and are nontoxic. Results show these pills improve the release and retention of the micromotors in the stomach compared to those encapsulated in silica-based tablets or in a liquid solution when given to mice. Data findings show encapsulating micromotors in traditional pill form improves their ability to deliver medicines to specific targets without diminishing their mobility or performance.
Results show the microbots successfully impel in gastric fluid, providing higher cargo retention onto the stomach lining compared to orally administrated free micromotors or passive microparticles. Data findings show the micromotor pills and loaded micromotors also retain the same characteristics after extended storage in harsh conditions.
The team surmises they have combined the advantages of traditional pills with the efficient movement of micromotors to offer an innovative route for administrating microbots orally for biomedical applications. For the future, the researchers state their work opens the door to the use of synthetic motors for
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Michelle is a health industry veteran who taught and worked in the field before training as a science journalist.
Featured by numerous prestigious brands and publishers, she specializes in clinical trial innovation--expertise she gained while working in multiple positions within the private sector, the NHS, and Oxford University.


Dosage independent intensity Dosage independent intensity is the particularly rare and inconsistent experience of spontaneously amplified psychedelic effects which are extremely disproportionate to the dosage consumed. For example, a user may ingest a threshold dosage but spontaneously experience high intensity effects such as moderate to overwhelming geometry, distortions, hallucinatory states, spirituality intensification, and even ego dissolution.
This experience can often feel like a defiance of normal pharmacology, it usually takes the user by surprise and most commonly occurs during the peak of the trip. Individuals who experience this effect often describe it as being very profound and intense due to its unexpected and spontaneous nature. It is also worth noting that this effect seems to primarily happen to users who are already somewhat experienced with the substance being consumed.
Dosage independent intensity is most commonly induced under the influence of mild dosages of classical psychedelic compounds, such as ayahuasca, psilocybin, and DMT; however, it is also induced under the influence of AL-LAD.
Psychoactive substances
Compounds within our psychoactive substance index which may cause this effect include:
25B-NBOH 25C-NBOH 25C-NBOMe 25D-NBOMe 25H-NBOMe 25I-NBOH 25I-NBOMe 25N-NBOMe 4-AcO-DMT Ayahuasca Psilocin Psilocybin mushrooms Experience reports
Annectdotal reports which describe this effect with our experience index include:
Experience: 5-EAPB (60mg) + 2-FMA (20mg) + 4-AcO-DMT (10mg) - Emotional catharsis Experience:1g of stars and love Experience:Psilocybin Mushroom (0.16 g, Oral) - Dosage Independent Intensity


Build a sustainable and proactive operation.
With digital production tracking, you can:
Access Real-Time Data and Stay Competitive
Have immediate access to machines, people, and process data to better understand your operation, and identify the opportunities to optimize your manufacturing practices to stay ahead of your competitors
Conduct Efficient Root Cause Analyses
With defect tracking and visibility into bottlenecks, manufacturers can effectively nip unproductive practices in the bud.
Leverage Connected Apps
Compiling metrics within or across multiple sites can be time-expensive. Save those minutes by using a connected platform that can give you data instantaneously.
Download the Digital Production Tracking eBook Download the Digital Production Tracking eBook
Manufacturers require production data to make impactful decisions. If this information is in disparate or manual systems, valuable time can be lost in the consolidation process.
It's time to ensure you have efficient production tracking using connected, app-based platforms.
Download your copy of the ebook and you'll take away: Why digital production tracking is essential in today's manufacturing operations The competitive advantages of connected app platforms over traditional systems examples of production tracking apps you can implement on your plant floor to see machine, worker, and process performance


Abstract
Neural compression algorithms are typically based on autoencoders that require specialized encoder and decoder architectures for different data modalities. In this paper, we propose COIN++, a neural compression framework that seamlessly handles a wide range of data modalities. Our approach is based on converting data to implicit neural representations, i.e. neural functions that map coordinates (such as pixel locations) to features (such as RGB values). Then, instead of storing the weights of the implicit neural representation directly, we store modulations applied to a meta-learned base network as a compressed code for the data. We further quantize and entropy code these modulations, leading to large compression gains while reducing encoding time by two orders of magnitude compared to baselines. We empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by compressing various data modalities, from images and audio to medical and climate data.
Publication: arXiv e-prints Pub Date: January 2022 arXiv: arXiv:2201.12904 Bibcode: 2022arXiv220112904D Keywords: Computer Science - Machine Learning; Computer Science - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition; Electrical Engineering and Systems Science - Image and Video Processing; Statistics - Machine Learning E-Print: Added audio experiments, additional references and open sourced code


2017
Renee Lynn Beard Associate Professor College of the Holy Cross Abstract
Perhaps the most dreaded disease of our time, Alzheimer’s is framed as a steadfast “loss of self” for those diagnosed, a long goodbye, and torture for all involved. The common tribulations of chronic illness dramatized as accounts of resilience and connection in spite of dementia are marginalized rather than celebrated. This longitudinal interpretive study draws on stories from those most intimately affected – diagnosed individuals and their care partners - to explore experiences of memory loss. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews and observations with multiple stakeholders, the project depicts various models of living with Alzheimer’s. Investigating how people interpret diagnoses according to shared worldviews has vast implications for understanding our core humanity as well as context-specific care needs. Mapping the social determinants of forgetfulness may reveal and hopefully begin to reverse potential barriers to accurate understandings of the illness, thus preserving a path to meaningful aging when facing Alzheimer’s.


Luminescent materials have a wide range of applications as signaling devices, sensors, and bioimaging probes. Complexes of iridium, platinum, and rhenium are very suitable for these purposes, because they are chemically stable and can emit several colors of light even at room temperature. Cyclometalated iridium complexes with conjugated chelate ligands are especially promising in this regard. Complexes bearing tridentate cyclometalated ligands form more rigid and longer conjugated systems relative to those with bidentate ligands.
Yuji Koga, Kouki Matsubara and co-workers, Fukuoka University, Japan, have prepared a series of C^C^N cyclometallated iridium complexes for the first time. These complexes are luminescent in the deep red and near-infrared ranges at room temperature with luminescence at longer wavelengths than those of previously synthesized C^N^C cyclometallated iridium complexes.
Synthesis, Structures, and Unique Luminescent Properties of Tridentate C∧C∧N Cyclometalated Complexes of Iridium Y. Koga, M. Kamo, Y. Yamada, T. Matsumoto, K. Matsubara, Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2011. DOI: 10.1002/ejic.201100055


Book Description
This book explores the dataspace paradigm as a best-effort approach to data management within data ecosystems. It establishes the theoretical foundations and principles of real-time linked dataspaces as a data platform for intelligent systems. The book introduces a set of specialized best-effort techniques and models to enable loose administrative proximity and semantic integration for managing and processing events and streams.
The book is divided into five major parts: Part I "Fundamentals and Concepts" details the motivation behind and core concepts of real-time linked dataspaces, and establishes the need to evolve data management techniques in order to meet the challenges of enabling data ecosystems for intelligent systems within smart environments. Further, it explains the fundamental concepts of dataspaces and the need for specialization in the processing of dynamic real-time data. Part II "Data Support Services" explores the design and evaluation of critical services, including catalog, entity management, query and search, data service discovery, and human-in-the-loop. In turn, Part III "Stream and Event Processing Services" addresses the design and evaluation of the specialized techniques created for real-time support services including complex event processing, event service composition, stream dissemination, stream matching, and approximate semantic matching. Part IV "Intelligent Systems and Applications" explores the use of real-time linked dataspaces within real-world smart environments. In closing, Part V "Future Directions" outlines future research challenges for dataspaces, data ecosystems, and intelligent systems.
Readers will gain a detailed understanding of how the dataspace paradigm is now being used to enable data ecosystems for intelligent systems within smart environments. The book covers the fundamental theory, the creation of new techniques needed for support services, and lessons learned from real-world intelligent systems and applications focused on sustainability. Accordingly, it will benefit not only researchers and graduate students in the fields of data management, big data, and IoT, but also professionals who need to create advanced data management platforms for intelligent systems, smart environments, and data ecosystems.
This open book is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY). You can download Real-time Linked Dataspaces ebook for free in PDF format (14.8 MB).


Morphologically-rich languages challenge neural machine translation (NMT) models with extremely sparse vocabularies where atomic treatment of surface forms is unrealistic. This problem is typically addressed by either pre-processing words into subword units or performing translation directly at the level of characters. The former is based on word segmentation algorithms optimized using corpus-level statistics with no regard to the translation task. The latter approach has shown significant benefits for translating morphologically-rich languages, although practical applications are still limited due to increased requirements in terms of model capacity. In this talk, we present an overview of recent approaches to NMT developed for translating morphologically-rich languages and open challenges related to their future deployment.


Land Shareholding Cooperatives centralize management over fragmented farmland by converting farmers’ plots into shares. While these cooperatives have been widely successful in boosting agricultural commercialization among rural smallholders in China, their potential has not yet been recognized in the African context. To fill this gap, this paper presents and discusses a theoretical framework based on recent literature, an in-depth case study from Uganda and quantitative analyses of data on horticultural cooperatives from Senegal and agricultural and livestock cooperatives from Uganda, Malawi, Madagascar, Rwanda and Kenya.


As we age, our eyes change too. Many of these changes in vision can be corrected by glasses or contact lenses. However, if your eye doctor tells you that your vision cannot be fully corrected with ordinary prescription lenses, medical treatment, or surgery, and you still have some usable vision, you have what is called “low vision.”


Keep products in the market. Protect your brand. Build your bottom line.
As the world moves from linear production to a circular economy, sustainable product design, development and lifecycle management have a crucial part to play. We’ll bring you the tools, expertise and solutions to actively support your product life extension strategies—helping you reduce waste, optimize costs and demonstrate your commitment to a sustainable future.


Member Since 2021
Missouri
I've been working for almost three decades in a variety of roles including communicator, economic developer, entrepreneur and diplomat. Originally from the UK (born in Scotland, raised in England), today I'm in Missouri USA I have been privileged in my career to be behind the microphone, in front of the camera, authoring books and articles, and representing non-profits, organizations, and corporations in all aspects of communication. I'm dangerously experienced in all aspects of marketing, public relations, communications (online and real world), economic development, diplomatic outreach and more. Over the years, I've supported the goals of companies and organizations involved with economic development, technology, agriculture, philanthropy, religion, anti-violence, education, health services, energy, sustainability, policy and information, and financial services. Some of the highlights have been my work in support of the British and Scottish governments, Cortex Innovation Community, CIC, the St. Louis startup ecosystem, Monsanto and Missouri. I've had the honor to be on teams that have been recognized with 42 awards for professional communications. And I am privileged to serve as HM Honorary Consul of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (aka the British Honorary Consul) to Missouri, and in 2016 was appointed a GlobalScot by the First Minister of Scotland. I'm an active volunteer, and have been humbled by recognition from both President Bush and President Obama. I'm also a published author, I have been told a decent public speaker and seem to be a well-rounded communication strategist. I hold a BS in Global Leadership and Management from Washington University in St. Louis and a PG Cert in Marketing from King’s College London.
Companies can use a variety of platforms to distribute their content including social media, email and blogs. However, there are times where a certain method is seen as the best way to put out content and keep the consumers happy. Making content accessible the way consumers want it is a way to retain those consumers and adopt a loyal fanbase.
You can help ensure your marketing efforts are successful by creating an authentic brand and generating genuine consumer interactions.
Do we really need to meet in person again? I contend: We absolutely do.
To build more meaningful ties and foster mutually beneficial collaboration in your own professional network, I suggest three tips.
International Trade & Development


When your heart has a critical condition and requires a detailed observation for finding the best treatment plan, a 24-hour Holter test is the doctor’s choice. Dr. Siva Kumar Reddy, finds this test adept at helping him in curing his patients.
What Is A 24-hour Holter Test?
A 24-hour Holter test records the activities of your heart for 24 hours. It can record heart rhythm and heart rate. It has a small (slightly larger than a deck of card) device attached to several wires or electrodes. The monitor hangs over your chest from your neck and the electrodes are attached to your chest with a glue-like gel.
When Is A 24-hour Holter Test Recommended?
Primarily, a 24-hour Holter test is recommended if an instant imaging technique does not reveal any abnormality and yet the patient suffers from fainting, convulsions, dizziness, abnormal heartbeat, etc.
It is also recommended in annual health checkups for people who have a history of heart problems in their past or in their family. A 24-hour Holter test helps a doctor to understand if the on-going treatment plan or an implanted heart device is benefiting the patient and if not, how the medicines or their doses are to be altered so that it benefits the patient.
Is A 24-hour Holter Test Safe?
The 24-hour Holter test is entirely safe. The lightweight monitor plainly sits on your chests for a day and notes how your heart performs in your daily life. There is absolutely no pain or irritation involved. However, since it’s just a one-day thing, you may be constantly aware of the device touching your skin.
How To Prepare For A 24-hour Holter Test?
When you consult a cardiologist, he will listen to your discomfort, perform a physical examination on you and then, if required, you may be asked to take the 24-hour Holter test. You can wear the device immediately – you don’t have to do anything specific before starting the test. However, while you are wearing the device, you must ensure the following:
Do not remove the device for 24 hours If the electrodes detach, re-attach them. (You will receive instructions on how to do that.) Ensure that the monitor sits on your chest closely. Do not bathe or swim for that day. Lead a normal day – do not over- or under-exercise.